Saturday, February 8, 2014

Welcome to Science Saturday!

The Science Kid

Hi there! Welcome to Science Saturday. Every week (or as often as Science Kid allows) I'll bring you a scientific investigation that can be done at home with common (or easily obtained) materials. Nothing will be ground breaking. You've probably done all of these yourself at some point. We aren't going to write your doctoral dissertation or win a Nobel Prize with these investigations, but we will work your Science Kids through some basic scientific processing.

What kinds of things will we be investigating?

Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geology, Astronomy...you name it! We are surrounded by all of these sciences every day. Kids are naturally curious about the world around us, so we'll try to work through some things that the SKs are thinking about anyway.

Are we just going to do cool stuff? Is that science?

Hardly! Science has nothing to do with the reaction, the dissection or the equipment. Science has everything to do with the questioning. We'll talk through some basic questioning techniques. We'll try to get the SKs to ask their own questions. We'll make predictions and even get through some basic math analysis.

Why should we listen to you? Are you Mr. Wizard or something?

I wish! He was my favorite...along with the great Carl Sagan. Like I said, the science isn't going to be revolutionary. The two things that I have going for me are that I have taught all levels and types of High School science for over a decade and I have an SK that asks a TON of questions.

Why do you keep saying 'we'?

Science is collaborative. Science is cooperative. The days of the old guy locking himself in a laboratory making an earth-shattering discovery are over. Today, the best science happens when teams work together, share ideas and question each other. Most discoveries are not only done with multiple people, but they often span multiple disciplines, multiple universities, multiple countries, and even multiple languages!

Science Saturday will work best as a partnership. Tell us how it went. What kinds of questions did your SK ask? Did you change the investigation? What worked? What didn't? The more interactive we make the investigations, the better an experience we can make for our SKs.

If you are interested in following along with Science Saturday, be sure to subscribe to the blog, like it on Facebook and let other parents know!